Your Heywood Floor will add warmth and beauty to your home for many years to come. Following a few simple maintenance steps, will help protect your investment and keep your Heywood floor like new.

Cleaning

■ Once fitted, do not wash or use a damp cloth on the floor for two weeks. If you are covering the floor with protective sheets after fitting, the two weeks starts from the date that the floor is uncovered. This ensures that the coating is fully cured before the first clean.

■ Use a damp cloth to blot up spills and spots as soon as they happen. For tough spots such as oil, paint, markers, lipstick, ink, tar or cigarette marks, use acetone/nail polish remover then wipe with a damp cloth. Always avoid allowing liquids to stand on your floor.

■ Regularly vacuum, (using the hard floor attachment not the beater bar), dust mop or sweep the floor to prevent sand or abrasive dust from accumulating and scratching the finish.

■ Periodically clean the floor with approved hardwood floor cleaner, which are specially formulated for the finish. The floor cleaner must match the finishing oil used on the floor. I.e for floors treated with Osmo oils, use Osmo liquid wax spray cleaner.

■ Best cleaning results are obtained by mixing the hardwood floor cleaner with warm water. For mix ratio ‘water/cleaner’ follow the instructions mentioned on the packaging and consider the intensity of dirt which needs to be removed.

■ Clean your hardwood floor by rubbing the cleaner into the floor using a moist white pad. During this process rinse your white pad in clean water every now and then and timely refresh the rinse water.

■ Most hardwood floor cleaners need some 10-15 minutes to loosen up the dirt. Follow instructions on the packaging for best results.

■ After 10-15 minutes you can mop up the loose dirt with a clean moist mop. While mopping rinse your mop in clean water and wrung your mop well before continuing.

■ When you are finished with mopping up the dirt, let your floor get completely dry for a period of minimum 6 hours, preferably overnight, before applying products such as maintenance oil.

■ Do not use oil based, wax, polish, or strong ammoniated or abrasive cleaners, steel wool or scouring powder to clean the floor.

■ Do not wash or wet-mop the floor with soap, water, oil soap detergent or any other liquid cleaning material. This could cause swelling warping, delaminating and joint-line separation, and void the warranty.

■ DO NOT use any type of polisher.

Maintenance Oil

■ Make sure that all dirt and dust is removed before any maintenance oil will be applied.

■ Before applying oil for maintenance carefully check with your Heywood dealer:
which type of finishing oil was used for your floor
when first maintenance oil treatment is normally required
which type and brand of oil, and which colour of oil needs to be used for regular maintenance of your Heywood floor.

■ After cleaning allow your floor to become dry again. The floor needs to be completely dry before any maintenance oil can be applied!

■ Please make sure that the oil is well shaken or stirred for a few minutes.

■ During oiling the floor should be at a room temperature of about 18-20 degrees C.

■ The oil recommended for your floor is best applied by using a spray bottle. The sprayed maintenance oil can be rubbed into your floor with clean and dry white pad.

■ Use a cotton cloth to rub the floor completely dry. Make sure to use a lint-free cloth!

■ Don’t walk on the oiled floor for the next 6 hours, during which period the oil will sufficiently dry for use.

■ Make sure that the floor will not be in contact or cleaned with water for the next 24 hours.

■ During the next weeks the oil will harden further until it reaches it’s maximum wear protection.

■ Be extra careful during this period, since the floor can easily mark during this period.

■ You best avoid moving any furniture or other heavy object during this period when the oil is still hardening

Important notice! To avoid the risk of spontaneous combustion any cloths or pads which were saturated with maintenance oil should be completely submerged in water and rinsed immediately after use. After rinsing with water hang them outdoors to dry or put them while still wet in a plastic garbage bag to dispose of.

Protecting

■ Do not cover the floor with rugs or doormats for at least two weeks after laying.

■ Use quality area rugs and doormats by outdoor entrance areas to prevent dirt, sand, grit and other substances such as oil, asphalt or driveway sealer from being tracked onto your floor.

■ Sweep, dust or vacuum the floor regularly to prevent accumulation of dirt or grit that can scratch or dull the floor finish.

■ Use floor protectors and wide bearing leg bases/rollers to minimise indentations and scratches from heavy objects. As a rule of thumb, the heavier the object, the wider the floor protector should be.

■ Do not use rubber or foam backed plastic mats as they may discolour the floor. To prevent slippage use an approved vinyl rug underlay.

■ Maintain a normal indoor relative humidity level between 40% and 65% throughout the year, to minimise the natural expansion and contraction of wood. Failure to provide adequate relative humidity in the home by the use of a humidifier or a dehumidifier will void the warranty.

■ Avoid gouges or cuts in your floor from sharp objects. While your Heywood floor is one of the most wear resistant floors on the market, sharp or pointed objects can nevertheless damage it.

■ Rearrange area rugs and furniture periodically so the floor ages evenly. UV sunlight will soften or darken the tone of different species of hardwood to varying degrees.

■ Use a dolly when moving heavy furniture or appliances. But first, put down a sheet of quarter inch plywood or Masonite to protect the floor. Never try to slide or roll heavy objects across the floor.